Mosaic boarder thicker than other tiles

[cornish_crofter]

Hi not been around as much as I would like to have been lately.

Anyway I'm about to tile a splashback for a vanity basin in a room. The customer has chosen a mosaic boarder, which is one sheet of mosaic she wants cutting up into strips of 3 tiles wide and inserting. This will give a mosaic boarder about 2 inches wide/deep.

The rest of the tiles are simply 4x4s I've got no issues with them on their own.

A few points

1) I was going to lay the tiles up to where the boarder is to be, then batten for the tiles above the boarder, leaving a consistent gap for the mosaics to be laid into later. This I feel would help me avoid having to set whole tiles on top of a mosaic boarder that could move around.

2) For such a small area of mosaics I wasn't going to go to the trouble of using Bal Mosaic or similar. I was just thinking of using a small mosaic trowel to get in there and apply the adhesive. A normal non rapid set would surely give me enough time to straighten out the mosaics as the tiles around them will be fully set by then.

3) This is the problem area. The mosaics are THICKER than the bleddy tiles! I have pointed this out to the customer (when I quoted for the job there was no boarder and certainly no mosaics). I have read up on using a liner to bring the tiles out thicker etc, or apply a thicker bed of adhesive over the area that is to be covered in the 4 x 4 tiles. I have gone to great lengths to make the wall level, and it is! I think there may be a 1mm variation over the whole area to be tiled. It's plasterboard on stud work. (this is only a splashback).

4) Also, this is going to be good fun. The mosaics on the sheet are different thicknesses to each other. To what depth do you set the grout? How do you grout this to make it look sensible? I'm thinking along the lines of a straight edge applied in the grout lines to grout to the thinnest tile. This would keep the grout the same depth but some of the mosaics would be protruding - What would look best?

I was shown the mosaics as I was just finishing up this evening. Up to that point I wasn't even aware they had a boarder to go up!

 

[kendo1]

Sometimes you don't have to level everything off.
Why not try them proud of the surrounding tiles? Treat them as an edging tile.

 

[Mike]

i've had borders like that a few times, it's a pain in the backside, i use a 10mm trowel for the field tiles and a 4/6mm for the borders

 

[Ian]

Same as Mike, only problem here is the border turned up after the field tile had been fitted.


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[Mike]

Same as Mike, only problem here is the border turned up after the field tile had been fitted.


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:mad2:

 

[kilty55]

as above a thicker bed for your main tiles to bed them out further

 

[Colour Republic]

you said it's plasterboarded studwork? cut out the plasterboard and inlay 9.5mm plasterboard... or 6mm tilebacker.... or 4mm tilebacker

a blunt feintool is perfect for cutting out plasterboard, i use it all the time to cut out for back boxes

oh and charge more for the extras 😉

 

[cornish_crofter]

you said it's plasterboarded studwork? cut out the plasterboard and inlay 9.5mm plasterboard... or 6mm tilebacker.... or 4mm tilebacker

a blunt feintool is perfect for cutting out plasterboard, i use it all the time to cut out for back boxes

oh and charge more for the extras 😉

Yes, I can do that! It's 9.5mm plasterboard and I've got loads of 6mm tilebacker. That is an option. All I have to do is to make sure the 6mm tile backer and the 9.5mm plasterboard are well supported where they are joined, which I think they should be. I put a shed load of bracing to accomodate all her options wrt to mirrors etc.

Don't you just love jobs where the customer has made absolutely no decisions as to what they want, and the few they have they spring on you at the last minute. As it's only a splashback I can laugh about it!

Extras will be charged for separately. Don't worry about that 😉

 

[White Room]

Surley if you start cutting strips from the existing plasterboard that will weaken it even if a strip of whatever gets put back in...

 

[Stewart]

If the field tiles are fixed, the I would either ask them to change the mosaic tiles or build them out even further and make a feature of them......


Created on iPhone.....

 

[Muse2k8]

I'd thank them for ruining your setting out plans then ask them to bring your sandals do you can perform your daily miracles before you head home.

 

[Colour Republic]

Surley if you start cutting strips from the existing plasterboard that will weaken it even if a strip of whatever gets put back in...

Depends on the stud work and how you refix. I can think of various methods that wouldn't undermine the strength of the wall

 

[cornish_crofter]

Well, it's been slow going, as all my tiling jobs are. Probably because I think about them too much!:lol: Plus I have been having to tile 4 inch tiles inside a 6 inch reveal either side of this splashback!

The tiles are up as are the mosaics.

The Mosaics are sitting almost flush to proud, depending on which mosaic you're looking at - yes they're different depths.

The approach I took is to lay the whole tiles up to the predetermined height, then measured 2" allowing for the strips with 2mm above and below, then battened that 2" above and laid the rest of the whole tiles to the top.

Then did the cut tiles, of which there were loads!

Then did the 6 inch returns. Again loads of cut tiles. 60% of the tiles or so were cut!!!!

Anyway, all up now ready for grouting. I had to take an afternoon off to get some Bal Mosaic. I was about to use the weber fix, but really as soon as I started using the Bal Mosaic I remembered why I was using it. It's just brilliant for the job. It was worth the 2 hour round trip to get it! A pain in the backside having to get materials when I should have been fixing the tiles, but I'm glad I did.

Now I have the pleasure of finding a way to grout the mosaics. These vary from flush to the field tiles to a good 2mm proud. I think I'm going to keep the grout at the same level. But how.....?

Paintbrush to level it down perhaps?

 

[jay]

any pics might help

 

[cornish_crofter]

OK I'll see what I can do next week.